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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29815212">Illyan’s Latest Mission</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecarden/pseuds/Ecarden'>Ecarden</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mutants and Mutants [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, X-Men - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:14:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,053</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29815212</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecarden/pseuds/Ecarden</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finally out of training, Illyan takes his team on their first mission. I'm sure everything will go fine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mutants and Mutants [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Illyan’s Latest Mission</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Seattle was a pretty city. Despite its reputation, it wasn’t particularly rainy.</p><p>Though, to be fair, Simon’s tendency to spend all his time indoors had skewed his perception and any weather at all was something of a pleasant change.</p><p>As soon as he arrived, the regional commander’s aide dropped a gigantic pile of case files on his newly-assigned desk.</p><p>Unfortunately, his team wasn’t actually going to be that helpful with them, as, again, no investigatory skill. So he gave them a different problem. Working together, they needed to come up with tactics to deal with interference by all known X-Men and Brotherhood members. Individually, or as a team.</p><p>It was something that needed to be done and it kept them out of his hair while he culled down the cases to something more manageable. There were many which just needed a reasonable field agent to go out, spend five minutes, ask for a voluntary blood test, then a conversation with the reporting party about the importance of not abusing MRD resources. The number of people who reported their neighbors as mutants with the power to ‘make dog barks louder’ or ‘plants grow faster over the property boundary’ or ‘move fences secretly without anyone noticing,’ would have been discouraging if he hadn’t spent his adult life in espionage. Still, the sheer pettiness of some of it was wearing.</p><p>Then there were the criminal defendants. ‘A mutant made me do it’ was one of the absolutely standard defenses in this universe and extraordinarily hard to disprove.</p><p>As he dug through he realized that the MRD’s disorganization was worse than he’d expected. This wasn’t a giant pile of work for him to do. This was all of the region’s active cases. Most had an agent’s name somewhere on the folder (though not the files) apparently indicating they’d ‘checked it out’ and were working it. The fact that they were giving him a bunch of copied paper records was a bit of a hint too.</p><p>Most of the files were thin and useless. Consisting of a complaint and maybe a follow-up memo. The exceptions were mostly active surveillance on various mutant rights groups. Apparently, their best infiltration and investigatory agents were being spent on watching various political groups. There were some agents assigned to more serious matters as well, usually violent attacks by Brotherhood members or other mutants. But there wasn’t much to do on those. It was obvious who’d done it. The giant collection of evidence was possibly necessary, but also almost useless as the mutant had already escaped. And if they were found, there was minimal chance they’d be take in alive. Illyan could have run manhunts, but those generally relied upon intelligence he didn’t have from connections he hadn’t made.</p><p>So his attention turned to the last set of hefty files. Those all had the same name on the file. C. Smith. Those contained good investigatory work and were <em>very</em> interesting. The most immediately interesting one was a large folder with more than thirty other files inside it. They were similar to those he’d discarded quickly, but these were theoretically marked closed. Defendants claiming a mutant made them do it. But these were…interesting. Not claiming mind control or whispered voices. And they contained very similar details.</p><p>They were all fairly normal people. Going through their lives. Then they found themselves chained up in a basement room, staring at a bank of screens. Helpless, they waited, screamed, cried, struggled, whatever. Until finally they found themselves back in their own body. Often under arrest. The crimes committed were mostly sex crimes, but several involved brazen thefts in which the stolen items were never located. And two were extremely brutal murders of apparently random people.</p><p>Agent Smith had apparently been attempting to get the MRD to provide resources for additional investigation, but this was way too subtle for them. And any claim from a criminal defendant that a mutant made them do it was basically an automatic shred.</p><p>Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if everyone else was wrong and they proved it in their first week in Seattle? Especially if they did it publicly? He’d need to find this Agent Smith and get to work.</p><hr/><p>Agent Cassandra Smith was a difficult woman to find. Hiding in the bowels of the building, she worked out of a record room. Nearly hidden between the stacks, the tall woman’s hair was pure white, revealing her as one of the few people working for the MRD who was older than Illyan. But her dark skin was almost unlined. Despite her plumpness and height, she seemed to take up far less space than she actually did. Self-effacing was the word that leapt to mind, but if you looked deeper, her brown eyes had a flashing intelligence.</p><p>It was obvious she wasn’t a field agent, but she still should have rated better than working out of the record’s room. Unless that was as deliberate a show as her appearance and attitude.</p><p>“Agent Smith?” he asked politely she turned to him and carefully pushed thick glasses up her nose and blinked innocently at him.</p><p>It was a remarkable performance, but undercut by eyes which flicked to his weapons, insignia and face in an instant. He smiled at her and she smiled back. There was a moment as she considered how to proceed, but given the moment of mutual recognition, she didn’t bother continuing the act. “Agent Illyan?”</p><p>“Indeed.”</p><p>“I thought you’d be taller. Being from the future and all.”</p><p>Illyan shrugged. “Sorry, still not talking about it.”</p><p>“Fair,” she didn’t have another chair, but waved him to the other side of her desk. “I assume you’re here to talk about CX-127D?”</p><p>That was indeed the case number for the case file under his arm. It was impressive that she recognized the folder just by the bit that was sticking out from behind his arm and chest. “Yes. Why haven’t your leads been followed up on?”</p><p>She steepled long hands in front of her. “Unfortunately, the field agents aren’t interested.” Illyan waited. “It would damage relations with the police to undercut their cases.” Illyan continued to wait. She shrugged a little uncomfortably, “And, frankly, I don’t have a great path forward. There’s an obvious pattern, which suggests some sort of body jumper, swapping positions with folks and then going for a joyride, but beyond that? I can’t predict who they’ll jump into and even if I could, capturing such a person does not seem feasible.”</p><p>“Would you mind if I took a crack at this one?”</p><p>She shrugged and drew a line through her name on the file. Illyan wrote his own name. “How do you intend to proceed?”</p><p>“If the target’s abilities are random, or allow random targeting, then we have nothing except the stolen goods. T--”</p><p>“Already followed up on those,” Cassandra said, watching Illyan’s reaction to the interruption.</p><p>He nodded slightly, totally unoffended as far as she could tell. “I did read the file,” he noted blandly.</p><p>“Good. So you’re assuming there’s some limitation to how they’re chosen?”</p><p>“It seems the only feasible route to investigate. So, begin with the last locations the alleged victims were before the swap occurred.”</p><p>“It’ll be a lot of footwork.”</p><p>“That’s what field agents are for.”</p><p>She laughed. “Good luck with that. In my experience unless someone actually shows up and throws stuff at them, they won’t find anything. I pried a forensic team loose and had them go over a site about eighteen months ago. Nothing. There was some surveillance footage, and the guy did stop suddenly at about the time he said he lost track of everything, but nothing conclusive.”</p><p>Illyan cocked his head slightly. “I did read the file,” his blandness was even more pronounced and she began to suspect that there was a <em>nasty</em> sense of humor under that blandness.</p><p>“Let me know what you find,” she said.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“It’s good to have someone intelligent to talk to. Feel free to stop by whenever you like.”</p><p>Illyan nodded slightly.</p><hr/><p>“Why are we all spread out over the city?” Alexander grumbled.</p><p>“Looking for similarities in the locations. Stream it back to me as soon as you arrive.”</p><p>“I thought you wanted those threat assessments?” Alexander pushed. “This’ll delay that.”</p><p>“One reason for accepting that delay is that it’s going to take time to complete the requisitions for the materials you’ve already identified as required.”</p><p>“Which is why you aren’t out here with us, sir?” Viktor asked, just a bit mockingly.</p><p>“If you prefer to do paperwork, I’m happy to switch.”</p><p>“No, no, no, no. Happy to leave that to you,” the sniper said.</p><p>“Were you able to get what I need to deal with Juggernaut?” Mary cut in.</p><p>“No. Because no one will admit to possession of anti-grav technology,” Illyan said. Which was true. He might be able to cobble together an anti-grav or tangle field. But either would only work before Cain Marko was able to build up speed. Once he had any momentum he was quite literally unstoppable. When combined with superhuman strength and durability, he was a significant problem. “We’re better off targeting the ground in his path.</p><p>“Which will require <em>significant</em> explosives,” Luo pointed out, with a rather disturbing glee.</p><p>“That I could get.”</p><p>“One of the reasons?” Viktor asked after a moment.</p><p>“Huh?” Alexander asked.</p><p>“Sir, you said one of the reasons for prioritizing this was to let you do paperwork,” Mary noted.</p><p>“I did.”</p><p>There was a moment as none of the others were willing to push, so the designated asshole did it for them. “What’s the other reason?”</p><p>Illyan frowned slightly at the assumption implicit in the question, namely that there was only one other reason. He still answered the question. “This is an immediate threat. If we can solve it, we can prevent more harm now. The X-Men and Brotherhood are a problem for another day. And preventing harm is what it's all about, right?”</p><p>Silence greeted that argument.</p><p>A few moments later they’d all streamed video back to him, in one of the MRD’s video conference rooms. He popped the video up on the larger screen, watching it once to get the high-resolution images into the chip. Then he ran a straight comparison through the chip for anything that matched between all of them. There were some he just rejected out of hand. Windows, sidewalks, street signs, stoplights, that sort of thing. But the interesting one was the security systems that were in each one.</p><p>He sent the agents in to request the relevant footage and, as an apparent afterthought, find out who’d done the installation and maintenance. In several locations there was more than one camera aimed at the relevant area, but all had at least one. And one of them was always from Tin Man Surveillance.</p><p>The next steps were a bit tricky. It appeared like the body jumper did not gain access to the victim’s knowledge, so a simple call-and-response security system would probably work, it simply required a <em>lot</em> of different calls and responses. Which some of the others were having a bit of trouble memorizing. Still, eventually they got confirmation that no one had been swapped.</p><p>While they were on their way back, Illyan got to have a fun conversation with the tech security folks. They were very willing to assist him and legal had no problem getting a warrant for the security company’s systems, though apparently the judge had not been in love with it. It took a day to get them on the calendar of someone senior, who’d been with the company for so long it was obvious he wasn’t their target, but once that was done they had the access they needed. It took the tech folks six hours to find the tap and trace it to an address. That was enough to get another warrant for the house.</p><p>The plan was simple. Unfortunately, Luo had to sit in the command van with him. Given the active nature of the target’s abilities, it was possible he (for the address was owned by a Mr. Oliver Jameson, no blueprints on file, but the old Zillow advertisement and pictures showed most of the layout) had spotted some members of the team, so the distraction had to be by someone else. Illyan snatched up two fairly junior field agents who were still young enough to volunteer for stuff, sight unseen. Then he dressed them up as Jehovah’s Witnesses (which he was not familiar with, but were the joint response of Alexander and Mary to ‘who is likely to come knocking on your door uninvited’) and had them go up and down the street, annoying everyone and keeping those who answered the door busy for as long as possible. He’d also given them several call-and-response phrases, but not explained the purpose of the mission. They were <em>very</em> confused. Thermal surveillance of the home showed no one upstairs, but there was a basement and though the camera could see through walls, yards of dirt was a whole different matter.</p><p>When they got to the house, everyone tensed. Alexander and Mary were already in the backyard and the target’s outer security system had already been compromised. As soon as he was in position, Alexander would disable the inner system and Mary would go in, looking for confirmation.</p><p>Thermal confirmed one person came up from the basement to the front door. Mary went in and slipped down the stairs silently as Alex waited by the back door. She was already down by the time he reached the front door. In their worst case scenario, he just turned around, but the agents lived up to their orders and leaned on the doorbell. Eventually he opened it. Amusingly, he was the first person who actually was interested in discussing the Good Word, though not in any particularly helpful way.</p><p>“Confirmed, sir. Matches description. Chains and screens. Think I know how he got out when he got back. I’ve got a hospital bed down here. Looks like an old lady in a coma, but I’ve got dirt on her feet, like she was getting up every little while to unchain him.”</p><p>“Any of the stolen items on site?”</p><p>“Confirmed, sir.”</p><p>“Any blood or other fluids to check for mutant status?”</p><p>“No, sir.”</p><p>“Viktor?”</p><p>“One of the idiots is in the way.”</p><p>“Take the shot as soon as you’re clear.”</p><p>“Yes, sir.”</p><p>There was another moment as the powerful mutant argued with a pair of MRD agents disguised as Jehovah’s Witnesses about the nature of divinity, then one of them shifted to the side and there was a very loud shot. The flash was suppressed by the building Viktor was inside. But the supersonic round beat the sound to his head, making the entire thing pop like a grape. That rather showered the entire area in brain and blood.</p><p>That produced screams and desperate reaches for weapons they’d been denied the right to carry on this operation from the undercover agents.</p><p>“Do not move,” Illyan snapped into the radio on their frequency. He had to repeat the command twice before they froze. “Jones. Red.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Jones. Red.”</p><p>“Right, right, right—uh, Dog.”</p><p>“Clark. Inside.”</p><p>The other agent, having the forewarning of his partners conversation was faster. “Potato.”</p><p>“Correct. Hold position and secure the scene. Support is inbound.” Illyan switched channels. A quick check confirmed all the agents were still themselves. Not yet his, but closer by this victory, unless something went wrong. “Alexander, confirm he was the mutant. Mary, secure the rear. Luo, get us in there, then take Clark and Jones and set up a perimeter.”</p><p>Luo drove them up to the house and hopped out, taking command of the <em>very</em> confused agents. They were glad of the MRD windbreakers, badges and weapons. But they were even more grateful for the towels the older agent produced. Illyan pulled on his own windbreaker and tossed the badge around his throat.</p><p>It was less than eight minutes after the only shot was fired that the first police car pulled up. The first officer who got out was obviously not terribly experienced as she lost her lunch when she saw the corpse without its head. In that eight minutes, Alex had completed the initial field test and confirmed that the very dead man had indeed been a mutant (probably, those tests were only so accurate).</p><p>Illyan himself stepped out to intercept them. “Officers. Thank you for your prompt arrival.”</p><p>“What the hell is going on here?” the officer who wasn’t yet vomiting but looked like he wanted to asked.</p><p>Illyan tapped the badge around his throat. “Simon Illyan, Mutant Response Division. This was Oliver Jameson. A mutant with the power to swap bodies with anyone he saw. He’s been using it to rape and steal his way across the area. We’ll be securing the scene for a forensic team and a medical team from the MRD, who are on their way. We do need an ambulance as it appears that there is a comatose woman downstairs.” The man nodded and moved back to his patrol car. Illyan looked down at the woman, who was slowly straightening and shamefacedly rubbing her mouth. He blandly produced a handkerchief and passed it to her. “We also need a perimeter set up to keep the civilians back. I wouldn’t want a child to get an eyeful before we can get this cleaned up.”</p><p>She latched onto that as an excuse to get the hell away from the corpse and got right on it.</p><p>It turns out, however, that a heavily armed paramilitary team conducting an assassination in suburban Seattle produces a <em>lot</em> of attention, very fast. By the time the ambulance had arrived to take the poor woman away (after Alexander had confirmed no brain activity, so probably Oliver had not made it into her) there were several local reporters as well as a small crowd at the perimeter the local PD had set up.</p><p>Illyan considered that for a moment. Journalists were annoying, but they also might be useful. On the other hand, any such action would undoubtedly infuriate his current superior, the Regional Commander for the Northwestern Region.</p><p>On the other hand, that was potentially useful as a team-building tool…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yeah, that was a bit brutal, even for Illyan. But honestly, I don't see any way to capture a bodyjumper like that. Maybe if he was willing to share stunner tech, it might be possible, but it's only a guess that the guy relies on sight rather than sound. And though he kept going back to his own body, it's unknown if that was a requirement or he could just keep swapping going forward. </p><p>Comments always welcome.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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